WHO STOLE MY MASTODONT TOOTH?
(Memories while touring dinosaur exhibit)
Mastodon…12,000 years old
WHY DID WE VISIT THE ROM ON DEC. 8, 2018?
Answer: We wanted to see my lost tooth…the story will unfurl below
Mastodont Tooth…12,000 years old
alan skeoch
Dec. 8, 2018
“Hey Marjorie, we’ve got two hours to kill, let’s go to the ROM?”
“Why?”
“One of the best dinosaur exhibits in the world.”
“Also have a spider special somewhere in there.”
“What does the ROM look like to you?”
“Sort of looks like a kind of Eiffel Tower that has fallen over.”
“Now what is your real reason for the visit?”
“My lost MASTODON TOOTH…I would like to see it again.”
“A tooth? We are looking for a tooth?”
“You betcha!”
“How much will it cost?”
“$35 for the two of us.”
“Better be worthwhile.”
“The dinosaur exhibit alone will be worth every penny….”
“Looks like a modernistic Eiffel Tower has collapsed…”that’s the Royal Ontario Museum”
“We only have two hours…let’s find the TOOTH first.”
“Why so important to you, Alan?”
“Long story but here is the short version. In 1960 I was prospecting in the Yukon Territory and found Dublin Gulch where
an American gold seeker was using hydraulic hoses to wash off the overburden to reach gold pay dust. He had a slab of
gold as his personal knuckle duster. Gave me some gold dust which I mailed to you…remember?”
“Sparkle on black electric tape in the letter.”
“Right. Well he also found the bones and tusks of Mastodonts. Lots of them as Dublin Gulch was a 12,000 year old
boneyard. The tusks were hauled up to his cabin along with ancient bones. And a huge Mastodont Tooth which he
gave to me. A treasure.”
“Lost it…right? “
“Stolen. I used the tooth in my early history classes at Parkdale C. I. Kept it in my cupboard. One year it was there…the
next year it was gone. Stolen. What a great prop that was for my lessons on human origins in North America…the Mastodonts
walked across the Land Bridge from Siberia to Alaska…people followed…thousands of years ago.”
“That’s the short version?”
“Some day I will tell you the long version.”
“Mastodont teeth in jaw. They had two sets and once they were ground down the poor
old Mastodonts starved to death. I suppose that could happen to us if there were
no dentists to do tooth implants.”
“These ancient ivory Mastodon tusks have been carved into pieces of art…valuable.”
“So we have found the tooth…Now What?”
“Let’s tour the gallery…see what we can.”
“Alan, the sign says this ugly looking slug may have been one of our ancestors.”
“Speaks to the origin of life on earth.”
“Other weird creatures in those ancient seas … below.”
“Creatures as beautiful as this bird have evolved…50 million of them according to the sign.”
“Lots preserved in bottles somewhere in the bowels of the ROM”
“And here is the DODO BIRD…probably our most famous extinct creature … has become a popular term today.”
“And here is an Arctic Fox with a Lemming in its mouth…supposed to be millions of Lemmings.”
“Ever see one?”
“Never…worked in Alaska on the edge of the Bering Sea…expected to see lemming but never did…
and only once did I catch side of a Kodiak Bear. Wild things are not easily found…less and less so
as human beings with guns move into their territories. Sad.
“Wow…look at them all…so many…bewildering…Dinosaurs.”
“What does Dinosaur mean?”
“Terrible Lizard…term fits I think.”
“That is the head of a huge armoured fish … so big and hungry that you would make a tasty meal…could
swallow and chomp you with ease.”
“Look at the bone yard…reminds me of Dublin Gulch…”
“The ROM has made a game of Dinosaur watching…This is Tyranosaurus Rex…big time predator 66 million years ago.
“Sign on the floor says STAND HERE…take your picture and send it home by Email.”
“Kids and adults lined up … big kids first.”
“Look down this gallery…see the flying creature at the end…bat like wings maybe 20 feet across…”
“I can’s see it Alan.”
“You will later.”
“The age of dinosaurs and other living things could not exist without the evolution of plants first.”
“Dinosaur had to eat something, right?”
“Yep…the herbivorous dinosaurs ate a lot of farms..tons of them.”
“Then the predatory dinosaurs ate them…right?”
“Survival of fittest … or the more ghoulish comment that “Nature is RED IN
TOOTH AND CLAW.”
THE skies of earth some 65 million years ago were quite frightening as these huge Pterosaurs drifted on thermal updrafts for miles and
miles with hardly a beat of their wings.”
“Look at the mouth on that big one.”
“Used the mouth to shovel up fish as it flew close to the water.”
“Had teeth that pointed inwards…spikes..”
“Fish hooks.”
“How could a dinosaur learn to fly?”
“I do not know.”
“Bones must have been heavy…too heavy for flight.”
“Apparently the bones slowly evolved … became lighter and lighter…then some time in the deep past a dinosaur said ‘Look at me, I can fly”
“Any of these Pterosaurs around today?”
“Nope they all died in the Fifth Extinction 65 million years ago.”
“Then where did birds come from?”
“Birds evolved differently…I have no quick answer for that…Do some work yourself…find out.”
“Look at those long bony fingers on that big pterosaur.”
“Now imagine a huge piece of skin that stretched from arm to foot…so big that once airborne these
things could drift on the wind with no need to flap much.”
“Got to go now.”
“Gift shop.”
“Alan, we could buy this fake tiger for $1,000…full size.”
LEAVING HE ROM…FROM DEEP PAST TO THE PRESENT
“Christmas Luncheon at Victoria College where we first met…remember?”
“Yes, you leaned out the window of your residence while I was running laps
to get ready for a football game.”
“You hollered…’Doing anything tonight?”
“I answered…”Not much”
“you responded…”See you tonight.”
“And so began our love affair…I am 80 now and you are a little younger.”
“Well, we’re not as old as the dinosaurs…that’s a comfort.”
“I wonder if our civilization, with its glass and aluminum towers, will last
as long as those dinosaurs did?”
“Art in paint and timber inside Victoria College.”
“Will any of this survive 12,000 years like the Mastodon Tooth?
“The wind is blowing icy air down from the Arctic, Alan.”
“Climate change is happening…takes time…the world is getting warmer in slow steps…DON’T LET COOL AIR FOOL YOU.”
“A lot of people Talk about the Sixth Extinction…blame human beings for it…we are changing the earth”
“Not always for the better.”
“Visiting the ROM is a sobering experience.”
“The footprint of a dinosaur.”
“The hand print of a human being.”
“65 million years apart.
“Let’s go home.”
“Just a thought…I wonder if the ROM stole my Mastodon Tooth.”
“Maybe.”
“I should have scratched my name on the tooth.”
alan Skeoch
Dec. 8, 2018
What was the secret question I asked earlier? HOW DID BIRDS EVOLVE?
BIRDS ARE NOT PTEROSAURS. **Your job is to find the answer.
Post Script Below: Changing Times and survival
